Day 85: 7/3/16 (Virtual AT 2020 Day 92)

We were told the Smokies would be difficult, but they ended up not being too bad. We were told that Virginia is flat and super easy, but really only Shenandoah was easy, and even it wasn’t all that flat. And then we were told that Pennsylvania is rocky. At first I thought it was going to be another hyperbole, especially when the first few days in PA were pretty nice, easy trail. Even the first rocks we hit weren’t anything special, we had seen worse back in Virginia. However, the past two days have proven to us that Pennsylvania is indeed rocky. It’s ridiculously rocky. Our feet are tired, and we’re ready for a day or two off because of the non stop rocks. There were sections of trail today that we got confused on where to go because the white blazes weren’t close enough together. The path almost always turned out to bring us up or down the most ridiculous rock scrambles. So for any budding thru-hikers out there,  Pennsylvania is most definitely rocky.

Aside from the rocks we had a good day. This morning a young porcupine wandered past the tent, paying no attention to us. We had a few decent vistas during our walk, and the trail was never really crowded, despite the holiday weekend. We took a nice long break (nice and had second lunch)  at Blue Mountain Summit Restaurant. I liked the vibe of this place, and I kind of wish wet could’ve stayed there since they’re also a bed and breakfast. The food was good, and the beer was cold. Couldn’t ask for anything more after a 13 mile hike. It’s also very conveniently located right off the trail, so we didn’t need to waste any time or effort getting to the place.

We’re settled into a campsite about a mile or so past the Bake Oven Knob shelter. We did a total of just about 21 miles today. We’ve got some more of the same tomorrow, but unfortunately a long water carry, as we’ll be walking through a superfund site, so the water there is not drinkable. I’ll try to provide some more detail on the site in tomorrow’s entry.